Adventures in Thyme

Our adventures in food

Pumpkin Goat-Cheesecake

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Pumpkin Cheesecake

Pumpkin Cheesecake

For those willing to broaden their culinary horizon, we present to you a cheesecake made from goat cheese.    Indeed, some turn up their noses at the thought of goat cheese, but that earthy tang so often found in goat milk products is not so pronounced when blended into this delicious cheesecake.  Oh, and we have gingersnaps, did we mention that?

Here is the recipe we served at Thanksgiving.

Crust

10 oz. gingersnap cookies (I like the ones from World Market)
2-4 T softened butter
2 or 3 T sugar for pan

Filling

3/4 cup sugar
12 ounces mild, soft, white goat cheese (10 oz logs from Costco, 4 oz from the grocery store.)
1 t Vanilla extract
1/2 T cinnamon
1/2 T nutmeg
1/2 t ginger
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups pumpkin
4 egg yolks
6 egg whites

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter a 9-10 inch spingform pan and dust with sugar (like you normally would flour a pan for baking).

Process the gingersnaps in a food processor until they are a course powder.  Add in the butter and process until well blended.  Press the mixture into the bottom of your springform pan and bake for 10 to 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool while you finish your filling.

Combine the sugar, cheese, vanilla, flour, pumpkin, spices and egg yolks in a large mixing bowl and blend together until smooth.  Set aside.

In a clean mixing bowl, beat egg whites until they form soft peaks.  Be sure the bowl and beater are clean and dry or the eggs won’t beat properly.

Gently fold 1/4 to 1/3 of the beaten egg whites into your filling mixture, by hand with a rubber spatula.  Add another 1/4 to 1/3 and fold in, then fold in the remaining egg whites.  This should make a relatively light batter.  Be sure to fold in the egg whites, do not beat or mix.

Pour your filling into your springform pan and place on the center rack of your oven.  Bake for approximately an hour or until the batter is mostly set.  It will still be a little jiggly in the middle.  Remove from the oven and gently run a butter knife around the edge of the cheesecake to loosen it from the edge of the pan.

Cool and serve with whipped cream.

Try it out and let us know how you did, or better yet, if you were able to trick your family into trying something new.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

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Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Ah the humble pumpkin, the  herald of the “holidays” – Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas.  When Starbucks updates their Fall menu to “Pumpkin Spice Latte” we know its time to kiss our diets a fond farewell and dive into pumpkiny indulgence in all its many forms.  Gather together pilgrims, it’s time to sing the praises of squash.  Can we get an amen!   Our ode to the season is this delicious Pumpkin Bread Pudding.  So easy, so delicious, you’ll love it as much as we do.

2 loaves pumpkin bread (we used the Krusteaz mix you can get in the store for the holidays)
8 eggs
4 cups goat milk
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1.2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Butter a 9 x 13 baking dish.

Cut the pumpkin bread into 3/4 to 1 inch cubes and place into the 9 x 13 baking dish.

Lightly beat the 8 eggs and whisk together with the 4 cups of milk, the spices and vanilla.  Carefully ladle or spoon the mixture over the bread.  Let the bread and custard mixture stand for 1/2 to 1 hour.

Heat your oven to 350 degrees.  Place the bread pudding into your oven on the middle rack and back for 1 hour to 1 hour and 20 minutes, until the custard is done.  Place on a wire rack to cool.  Serve warm or place it in your refrigerator to serve tomorrow.  You can warm it or serve it cold.

To serve, cut into portions and drizzle with caramel sauce and top with whipped cream.  There is a good, easy caramel sauce on the Food Network website, here.

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving, may you see the many blessings of this life everywhere you look.

Ice Cream Bread

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Ice Cream Bread

Ice Cream Bread

 

“Did you say Ice Cream Bread?  Seriously, I can have my cake and ice cream in one baked bite?!”  Yes siree Bob!  Three ingredients is all it takes.

Our baking normally involves the consideration of a bovine-dairy free and wheat/gluten free restricted diet.  So this adventure began with a pint of LaLoo’s Vanilla Snowflake Goat Milk Ice Cream, 1.5 cups of Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Flour (now available at Costco!) and approximately 2 tsp of baking powder.

Set the pint out on the kitchen counter to melt, once it’s runny add the flour and baking powder.  Pour this into a buttered loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees F. until a test toothpick comes out clean.  Approximately 20-30 mins.  Set the loaf out to cool for a few minutes before turning it out onto a rack to finish cooling to yummy perfection.

Now, you may be looking at the photo above and saying “3 ingredients huh? I see fruit chunkies in that bread.”  You would be correct.  At the time we took this photo I had added a homegrown diced peach into the mix.  It added a wonderful peachy undertone and made for a fond farewell to the riches of our peach harvest.

So next time your ice cream melts, don’t worry – make bread!

 

The Biggest Little Pork Meatballs in town

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Pork Meatballs

Pork Meatballs

In our humble home, quick and easy tend to be the meals we gravitate to.  These little pork balls are fairly no fuss and are baked in the oven giving you time to decompress after a long day.  They’d work well at a party with a selection of sauces too!

Before you get started, set the oven to 400 degrees F, and prep a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Recipe for the Meatballs:

  • 1.5lbs of ground pork
  • 2 eggs + 1 egg white
  • ~3 minced scallions
  • ~3 minced garlic cloves
  • ~1 Tablespoon grated ginger
  • 3 Tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 Tablespoon toasted sesame oil
  • ~ 2 teaspoons sugar
  • ~ 2 teaspoons cornstarch

Roll up your sleeves and mix all these ingredients, yes, get your hands in there and add some elbow grease.  It’s the secret ingredient.  Sssshhh, don’t tell…

Now, start rolling these into balls and placing onto your prepared baking sheet.  No more than 2″ in diameter, but if you’ve got little ones in the house, you could make them smaller for easier bites, just adjust your baking time accordingly.

Recipe for the Sauce:

  • 1/2 cup Hoisin (usually in the International or Asian section of the grocery store)
  • ~1 teaspoon rice vinegar (usually in the vinegar aisle but may also be found in the Asian section)
  • ~ 1 Tablespoon of sugar
  • A dollup of honey (roughly a spoon size)

Divide out a portion of this sauce for later dipping and set aside.  If there are eaters in your home that prefer a little more spice in their culinary life, add some Sriracha sauce to taste.

Brush each of the meatballs with sauce from the original bowl and place sheet in oven.  Check back in about 20 mins.  Our oven is persnickety, but once they begin getting a lovely golden brown I sacrifice one on the alter of my tastebuds.  If they’re cooked thru – they’re done!

I serve these with homemade fried rice, but if your grocery store sells fresh Chinese food (ex: Raley’s) you could always buy a pint on the way home.  Enjoy!

 

Perfectly Peach Ice Cream

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Peach Ice Cream

Peach Ice Cream

 

There’s something about peach ice cream that just exudes “summer”.  You know, that uber relaxed day sitting in a lawn chair watching kids run thru a sprinkler; that day of sultry weather where your whole body seems to relax into a giant yawn and you swing yourself to sleep in a hammock.  THAT kind of idealic day.

This recipe was made with peaches from our garden that had ripened in the warm heat of a Reno summer.  The recipe can be found in “The Perfect Scoop” by David Lebovitz – an ice cream book with delectable recipes for ice creams, sorbets, granitas, and “sweet accompaniments”.  A truly must have book for foodie aficionados.

Try out this recipe and you’ll be singing “I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! Rah, rah  Ooogie de wawa rah rah rah!”